December 21, 2009
Congressional letter to SECDEF Gates demands end to Islamic lectures to troops by Louay Safi and ISNA
Earlier this month we were the first to report, along with JihadWatch, that terror-tied Islamic speaker Louay Safi had just given a lecture at Ft Hood on Islam to troops departing for Afghanistan. Andy McCarthy at NRO followed up on that reporting, as did other media outlets. Safi subsequently complained of being the victim of smears for us reporting that he had been recorded on FBI wiretaps talking to terrorist leaders and such (which is all a matter of public record).
Now a group of congressmen have sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates demanding that all lectures by Safi and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) to military troops be halted immediately.
Hey, here's an idea: let's end ALL lectures on religion to military personnel. Anyone remember the frickin' First Amendment? No doubt if troops were receiving lectures on the 1400 years of Islamic invasion and occupation, and the heroics of Western Civilization repulsing the Islamic jihad from the Spanish Reconquista to the defense of Vienna, Safi, ISNA and their various Islamist cohorts would be screaming bloody murder (and/or engaging in it). And the ACLU would have filed lawsuits to stop such long ago.
Text of the letter (provided by FSM) below the fold:
17 December 2009The Honorable Robert Gates
Secretary of Defense
The Pentagon
Washington, D.C.Dear Secretary Gates:
It has come to our attention that the Department of Defense has invited Louay Safi, a top official at the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), to give lectures on Islam to our troops at Fort Hood. If this is indeed true, we respectfully request that you end this practice.
According to the Justice Department, ISNA is a prominent member of the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization with a network of known and suspected Islamic terrorist organizations spread throughout the world. The Brotherhood and its partner organizations regularly espouse violent jihad and anti-Semitism.
More specifically, ISNA was identified by the Justice Department at the successful Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing conspiracy trial as an unindicted co-conspirator. Literature distributed by ISNA at its annual convention in Washington in July featured books and pamphlets portraying prosecution of terrorist and terror-supporters as “anti-Muslim bigotry;” revisionist history that denied Arab and Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israel; and anti-Semitic tracts.
Safi himself has been connected to an entity called the “Safa Group.” Search warrants executed in 2002 were supported by an affidavit alleging its involvement in moving large sums of money to terrorist fronts. He was also caught on a 1995 FBI wiretap of Sami al-Arian. Safi was concerned that an executive order, issued by President Clinton prohibiting financial transactions with terrorist organizations, would negatively affect al-Arian. In April 2006, al-Arian pled guilty to a charge of conspiring to provide services to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad – a specially designated terrorist organization.
The Muslim Brotherhood is dedicated in its own words to “a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands.” What better way to carry out its plans to “sabotage” our efforts than to have one of its own invited to lecture on Islam to the very troops called to defend this country against those the Brotherhood supports. We ask that you immediately stop any lecturing by Louay Safi or ISNA affiliated speakers.
Sincerely,
W. Todd Akin
Member of CongressSue Myrick
Member of Congress
Trent Franks
Member of CongressTodd Tiarht
Member of CongressCathy McMorris Rodgers
Member of CongressJeff Miller
Member of CongressPhil Gingrey
Member of CongressPaul C. Broun
Member of CongressRodney Alexander
Member of CongressSteve King
Member of CongressKenny Marchant
Member of CongressJohn B. Shadegg
Member of CongressRalph M. Hall
Member of Congress
